Barry Cunningham (politician)

{{Short description|Australian politician (1939–2018)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}

{{Use Australian English|date=August 2021}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific-prefix =

| name = Barry Cunningham

| honorific-suffix =

| image =

| constituency_MP = McMillan

| parliament = Australian

| majority =

| predecessor = Barry Simon

| successor = John Riggall

| term_start = 18 October 1980

| term_end = 24 March 1990

| predecessor2 = John Riggall

| successor2 = Russell Broadbent

| term_start2 = 13 March 1993

| term_end2 = 2 March 1996

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1939|10|26}}

| birth_place = Pakenham, Victoria, Australia

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2018|9|12|1939|10|26}}

| death_place =Warragul, Victoria, Australia

| nationality = Australian

| spouse =

| party = Australian Labor Party

| relations =

| children =

| residence =

| alma_mater =

| occupation = Farmer

| profession =

| religion =

| signature =

| website =

| footnotes =

}}

Barry Thomas Cunningham (26 October 1939 – 12 September 2018) was an Australian politician. Born in Pakenham, Victoria, he was a dairy and potato farmer and an agricultural contractor before entering politics. In 1980, he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Labor member for McMillan, defeating Barry Simon of the Liberal Party, who had been deprived of Democratic Labor Party preferences due to his views on abortion. He was defeated in 1990 but was re-elected in 1993, before being defeated again in 1996.{{cite web|last=Carr|first=Adam|title=Australian Election Archive|work=Psephos, Adam Carr's Election Archive|url=http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia|year=2008|access-date=2008-06-20| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080723090718/http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/a/australia| archive-date= 23 July 2008 | url-status= live}}

In 2015, Cunningham and three other former MPs brought a case before the High Court of Australia, purporting that reductions to their retirement allowances and limitations on the number of "domestic return trips per year" under the Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) Act 2002Members of Parliament (Life Gold Pass) Act 2002, 'https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2012C00523/Html/Text#_Toc329175148' was unconstitutional under S51(xxxi) of the Constitution of Australia. They lost the case in 2016, with the court finding that Parliament was entitled to vary the terms of allowances.{{cite news | title=Former MPs lose High Court challenge over entitlements | date=12 Oct 2016 | work=ABC News | url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-12/high-court-rules-on-entitlements-gold-pass/7924916}} He died in 2018.{{cite news|url=https://www.pressreader.com/australia/warragul-drouin-gazette/20180918/281698320654207|title=Former local member dies|newspaper=Warragul & Drouin Gazette|date=18 September 2018}}